BubbaJones, silver proof Lan Ting is not out of reach, although the antique silver version is pretty expensive now. As for Xiequyuan, apart from its accidental low mintage, the artwork is not that impressive.

Keep or KOT, lol, yeah, I'll take a pass. Wow! Lan Ting Antique, way too much for my pockets.

These have probably gone up a ton since their intro price. I guess you reap great dividends being early to the dance.

Oh well, as I said, impossible for me....I mean my pockets. Wow. And the XIE, 3 - 10k or more, I guess that makes sense, there are only 99 sets and they are gorgeous.

Whoever crafted those puppies are quite amazing. Those should go down as some of the best art pieces in medal history. History will obviously determine its place, but if I'm a betting man, I'd place a big net on that series.

I'll be keeping my eyes out for the new series. The gold only has 10? I think I read somewhere in my perusal of these pages, to be aware of something called the mintage trap.

I have to go back and read about this in more detail.

I'm still floored by art work is this garden series. Does anyone here have every piece? If so, I roll out the red carpet. You are one lucky person!

Thanks fwang. It appears you know something about the new one coming out. Do you know when?

I'm going to look at the Lan Ting. That is quite a piece. The one with the gate ain't bad either. Actually they are all great.

I see what you mean keep, but it is still nice. Not 10k nice, but maybe 1k nice. :-) What is an accidental mintage mean? That seems like an oddity?

From the accounts you will read on this thread it was initially planned to use the Xiequyuan as one side of the Summer Palace Garden Medal. However they later on decided to use the Long Corridor design for that medal instead. But instead of discarding all the work that went into designing the Xiequyuan side someone had the brilliant idea of minting a limited (99 piece) run as the Summer Palace Xiequyuan Medal. I believe that is the "accidental mintage" fwang referred to.

From the accounts you will read on this thread it was initially planned to use the Xiequyuan as one side of the Summer Palace Garden Medal. However they later on decided to use the Long Corridor design for that medal instead. But instead of discarding all the work that went into designing the Xiequyuan side someone had the brilliant idea of minting a limited (99 piece) run as the Summer Palace Xiequyuan Medal. I believe that is the "accidental mintage" fwang referred to.

Both Yiheyuan and Yuanmingyuan were destroyed twice by foreign invaders. I have always wondered why the former was rebuilt (on both occasions) whilst the latter was not. One possible answer is that Empress Dowager Cixi needed to keep her powerbase/refuge at Yiheyuan intact unlike Yuanmingyuan which was not essential for her political survival. It was also going to be prohibitively expensive to rebuild both at the same time. In fact she had to divert funds meant for the navy to do the restoration of Yiheyuan. Does anyone have additional insight into this? Thanks.

Both Yiheyuan and Yuanmingyuan were destroyed twice by foreign invaders. I have always wondered why the former was rebuilt (on both occasions) whilst the latter was not. One possible answer is that Empress Dowager Cixi needed to keep her powerbase/refuge at Yiheyuan intact unlike Yuanmingyuan which was not essential for her political survival. It was also going to be prohibitively expensive to rebuild both at the same time. In fact she had to divert funds meant for the navy to do the restoration of Yiheyuan. Does anyone have additional insight into this? Thanks.

You are really digging into the history of these gardens. From what I know, it would be impossible to rebuild Yuanmingyuan, which took 150 years to complete, covering an area 1/5 larger than Yiheyuan, seen as the Garden of all Gardens. It would be beyond the financial means and technical skills of that time.

An interesting feature of the 2013 Lan Ting Medal is that it incorporated elements of an earlier medal design that was produced by the same Shanghai Mint. Enclosed within the obverse of the said 2013 medal is the obverse of yet another medal, the 1993 1690th Year Anniversary of the Birth of Wang Xizhi copper medal. The latter is framed by the almost circular entryway found on the obverse side of the former medal. The obverse of the 1993 medal depicts the Lan Ting Ink Stone as well as the vista of the Lan Ting Garden showing the usual elements of classical Chinese gardens such as the body of water, pavilions and other buildings, trees and other plantings, and rocks. Whereas the 1993 medal celebrated the life and epic calligraphic work of Wang Xizhi the 2013 medal seems to place it in a different context providing instead a reenactment of the famous gathering that led to the subsequent and enduring fame of the Lan Ting garden. This is just very interesting!

The Liuyuan medal is looking good! The boat side (obverse or reverse?) has an almost photographic quality to it with lots of detail. The waters are largely placid unlike in other medals of the series, with a mirror-like effect. This allows structures on land to reflect nicely off the water. Looking forward to seeing the actual medals!

The Liuyuan medals have now left the mint apparently en-route to the dealers. I have seen photos of the medals and note that ALL the medal types are enclosed in double OMP and as sheets including the silver medals. I hope these silver medals are not removed from their OMP as has been done for recent releases. I do not know of any scientific reason that removal of silver coins and medals from OMP prevents white spots. Rather the opposite is the generally held belief. This is an appeal to the medal sponsors not to remove the pliable plastic part of the OMP. Some collectors like storing their coins and medals in intact OMP instead of being forced to send them off for grading and encapsulation because they arrived already disrupted.

The Liuyuan medals have now left the mint apparently en-route to the dealers. I have seen photos of the medals and note that ALL the medal types are enclosed in double OMP and as sheets including the silver medals. I hope these silver medals are not removed from their OMP as has been done for recent releases. I do not know of any scientific reason that removal of silver coins and medals from OMP prevents white spots. Rather the opposite is the generally held belief. This is an appeal to the medal sponsors not to remove the pliable plastic part of the OMP. Some collectors like storing their coins and medals in intact OMP instead of being forced to send them off for grading and encapsulation because they arrived already disrupted.

The proof versions of Yuanmingyuan, Geyuan and the Mountain Resort were never TAKEN OUT of the soft pouch. They were never put in there, because of the concern of white spots. This time the sponsors are encouraging collectors to cut them out if not graded immediately, to avoid this problem. The soft pouch was added this time probably to prevent the capsule from opening during shipping.

As for the validity of the soft pouch contributing to white spots, our previous moderator badon had a theory, and the Classical Garden medals' team claimed that it was their experience with the Summer Palace.